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Blending the Sublime and the Ridiculous: A Study of Parody in György Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre

Sewell, Amanda J
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1150987452

Abstract Details

2006, Master of Music (MM), Bowling Green State University, Music History.
Most musical depictions of the apocalypse do not begin with a car-horn prelude. However, György Ligeti’s only opera, Le Grand Macabre, written in 1978 and revised in 1996, is not most music. Dark, humorous, sometimes off-color, and always thought-provoking, Le Grand Macabre is filled with examples of musical and musical-historical parody. This thesis analyzes five parodic episodes from Le Grand Macabre, evaluating them in light of the theories of literary scholar Linda Hutcheon, musicologist David Metzer, and others. Metzer, especially, proposes a twofold perspective for works comprised of quotation: either the dramatic action collapses internally, resulting in insanity, or it collapses externally, yielding destruction. A comet strikes in the penultimate scene of Le Grand Macabre, and the final scene involves the characters trying to discover whether or not they are dead. Ultimately, the only person to die is Nekrotzar, the self-proclaimed Death. However, Ligeti insists that the ending of the opera be left to individual viewers to interpret: he does not want the production to end as either a farce or an apocalypse. Thus, I analyze Le Grand Macabre based not on Metzer’s twofold concept, but rather on a continuum in which the two extremes are insanity and destruction. Critical to this analysis is a discussion of Peter Sellars’s production of Le Grand Macabre at the 1997 Salzburg Festival. Ligeti attacked the production, and most reviewers agreed that Sellars interpreted the story as an apocalypse, not as the ambiguous adventure Ligeti had envisioned. Accordingly, I explore this ambiguity in light of Umberto Eco’s The Open Work to determine whether an inconclusive ending automatically denotes an “open work.”
Carol Hess (Advisor)
69 p.
Music
Ligeti; Le Grand Macabre; parody; quotation; Metzer

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Sewell, A. J. (2006). Blending the Sublime and the Ridiculous: A Study of Parody in György Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre [Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1150987452

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Sewell, Amanda. Blending the Sublime and the Ridiculous: A Study of Parody in György Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre. 2006. Bowling Green State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1150987452.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Sewell, Amanda. "Blending the Sublime and the Ridiculous: A Study of Parody in György Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre." Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University, 2006. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1150987452

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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This open access ETD is published by Bowling Green State University and OhioLINK.